PWCGS Meeting Minutes

PWCGS Meeting Minutes

10 Jan 2017

The meeting began at 9:40 am at the Hillendale VFD Training room. Attendees were Jose & Barbara Rio; Cathy Greener, Jeri Brooks, David & Ann Sigvaldsen, Richard Underwood and Dennis Wolstenholme.

The Secretary pass around brochures for the VGS & FGS Spring Conferences taking place in Richmond and Falls Church respectively. The VGS’s December newsletter has a front page article about the troubles confronting the Library of Virginia due to the Governor cutting funding to that institution. It gives the names and contact information of the members of the State Senate Finance Committee and House Appropriations Committee so that all concerned citizens can register their disapproval of this move as well as block further attempts to force cuts in staff and services.

Dennis asks if any of us are visiting/using the website since it takes substantial effort to maintain/update it. That plus doing the Newsletter is becoming too much for him. If no one else steps up to do the newsletter by March, the December issue published last month will be the last.

Following the example of the Fairfax Genealogy Soc. He also thinks it would be a good practice each meeting to have a member present a program outlining his/her research – either problems, breakthroughs, formats, etc. so that we can become familiar with each others’ work and possibly offer help. Richard will lead off for the month of February.

James Ellis contacted Dennis and was coming to the area to look for a family cemetery. The great staff at RELIC was able to get him permission to visit the cemetery which is on private property. Mr. Ellis we would really like to have the story of your family that connects to Prince William County and thank you for your membership.

In conjunction with the idea of locating area cemeteries Dennis showed how our website has a list of PWC graveyards that have a hyperlink to a map and it should also bring up Google Maps so you can see the lay of the land if the plot is near a traveled and photographed road. Names can be a problem as some cemeteries are known by various different monikers. Ron Turner’s list , ours, the one from the county, Find A Grave and Billion Graves do not always concur so the only way to be quite certain of your results is to compare the burials.

We used the TV & DVD player to see John Colletta’s 4th lecture “Military Records and Homestead Files”.

The Military documents are divided into Service, Pension & Bounty Land Records. The National Archives has records pertaining to the Revolution through c.1917 except for Confederate Pensions which were handled by the appropriate states.

Early troops were mainly Militia; Army & Navy/Marines were created in 1789 and were all voluntary services. Personnel files are a modern 20th century item. There exists a Compiled Military Service Record for volunteers (and most were) but not for Regular Army. For a small part of the Regulars you can try enlistment papers. The Register of Enlistment 1789-1914 is on the internet. Fold 3 is your best source for military records of all types and can be accessed from home FREE if you have a library card from the

Library of Virginia. There is also lists of people who registered for the Draft for the Civil War and WW I. Most may not have actually served because their area filled the quota with volunteers but the lists of names may still exist. Remember the National Park Service also has a database of Civil War Units. Modern records for WW I & II (if they survived the fire are in St. Louis, MO). To access them you need NATF forms 86 or 85 w/ Unit or Ship and Rank as well as dates of service all of which you may find on Fold 3, Ancestry.com, or in various published indexes and histories.

Bounty Land was owned by the Federal Government and in lieu of payment was given for service (Rev. War to 1856). The allotment was a Warrant for 160 acres per man which he, his heirs or assignees located (surveyed) and applied for a Patent. When the Patent was given they surrendered the Warrant. The original application for the Warrant as well as the surrendered Warrant can sometimes be found.

The 1st Homestead Act was set up 1862/3 and gave 160 acres to any man or woman for $6.00 if they would improve the land and live on it for at least 5 yrs. It applied to 33 states and NARA has paperwork for both successes and failures. That includes Certificates of Homestead, Annual reports of improvements, sometimes naturalization papers and misc. correspondence. In 1917 a new Act came into being that allotted even more land. GLORecords.BLM.gov has a database of names and it also contains land that was sold.

Ann asked if we knew that we could designate the PWCGS as the recipient of Amazon.com’s charitable contributions based on your amount of purchases.

10 Jan 2017

The meeting began at 9:40 am at the Hillendale VFD Training room. Attendees were Jose & Barbara Rio; Cathy Greener, Jeri Brooks, David & Ann Sigvaldsen, Richard Underwood and Dennis Wolstenholme.

The Secretary pass around brochures for the VGS & FGS Spring Conferences taking place in Richmond and Falls Church respectively. The VGS’s December newsletter has a front page article about the troubles confronting the Library of Virginia due to the Governor cutting funding to that institution. It gives the names and contact information of the members of the State Senate Finance Committee and House Appropriations Committee so that all concerned citizens can register their disapproval of this move as well as block further attempts to force cuts in staff and services.

Dennis asks if any of us are visiting/using the website since it takes substantial effort to maintain/update it. That plus doing the Newsletter is becoming too much for him. If no one else steps up to do the newsletter by March, the December issue published last month will be the last.

Following the example of the Fairfax Genealogy Soc. He also thinks it would be a good practice each meeting to have a member present a program outlining his/her research – either problems, breakthroughs, formats, etc. so that we can become familiar with each others’ work and possibly offer help. Richard will lead off for the month of February.

James Ellis contacted Dennis and was coming to the area to look for a family cemetery. The great staff at RELIC was able to get him permission to visit the cemetery which is on private property. Mr. Ellis we would really like to have the story of your family that connects to Prince William County and thank you for your membership.

In conjunction with the idea of locating area cemeteries Dennis showed how our website has a list of PWC graveyards that have a hyperlink to a map and it should also bring up Google Maps so you can see the lay of the land if the plot is near a traveled and photographed road. Names can be a problem as some cemeteries are known by various different monikers. Ron Turner’s list , ours, the one from the county, Find A Grave and Billion Graves do not always concur so the only way to be quite certain of your results is to compare the burials.

We used the TV & DVD player to see John Colletta’s 4th lecture “Military Records and Homestead Files”.

The Military documents are divided into Service, Pension & Bounty Land Records. The National Archives has records pertaining to the Revolution through c.1917 except for Confederate Pensions which were handled by the appropriate states.

Early troops were mainly Militia; Army & Navy/Marines were created in 1789 and were all voluntary services. Personnel files are a modern 20th century item. There exists a Compiled Military Service Record for volunteers (and most were) but not for Regular Army. For a small part of the Regulars you can try enlistment papers. The Register of Enlistment 1789-1914 is on the internet. Fold 3 is your best source for military records of all types and can be accessed from home FREE if you have a library card from the

Library of Virginia. There is also lists of people who registered for the Draft for the Civil War and WW I. Most may not have actually served because their area filled the quota with volunteers but the lists of names may still exist. Remember the National Park Service also has a database of Civil War Units. Modern records for WW I & II (if they survived the fire are in St. Louis, MO). To access them you need NATF forms 86 or 85 w/ Unit or Ship and Rank as well as dates of service all of which you may find on Fold 3, Ancestry.com, or in various published indexes and histories.

Bounty Land was owned by the Federal Government and in lieu of payment was given for service (Rev. War to 1856). The allotment was a Warrant for 160 acres per man which he, his heirs or assignees located (surveyed) and applied for a Patent. When the Patent was given they surrendered the Warrant. The original application for the Warrant as well as the surrendered Warrant can sometimes be found.

The 1st Homestead Act was set up 1862/3 and gave 160 acres to any man or woman for $6.00 if they would improve the land and live on it for at least 5 yrs. It applied to 33 states and NARA has paperwork for both successes and failures. That includes Certificates of Homestead, Annual reports of improvements, sometimes naturalization papers and misc. correspondence. In 1917 a new Act came into being that allotted even more land. GLORecords.BLM.gov has a database of names and it also contains land that was sold.

Ann asked if we knew that we could designate the PWCGS as the recipient of Amazon.com’s charitable contributions based on your amount of purchases.